Elf Apprenticeship
by Balefire
Summary: Discovering hidden powers, Ryeth finds out he has all the characteristics of an elf. But does he have what it takes to survive? (I don't know where this is headed, and the title is subject to change)


Since I've come to a writer's block in my 

Since I've come to a writer's block in my Spiderman series, I decided writing something was better than nothing, no?So, here goes, I hope ya'll review for this.Somewhat off track to what I've been writing now, was inspired by a dream, and I though it was pretty interesting.

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The room was unnaturally dark, void of light, no colour, no shades, no nothing.Just black.Leastwise it was to the average human, but to Ryeth, things were different now.Even in the absolute absence of brightness, he could see.He was stealthy.And all of it came to him instinctively.

A knife came swooping down towards his face, and he bent to the side, sweeping his own dagger at his attacker, but only hitting empty air.Another came at the back of his legs, and he jumped, twisting around to try to get a glimpse of the flitting shade.But it was all over in mere moments, a side-kick landing on his ribs, and a knife reaching the nape of his neck.

Blonde hair draped around his face, as Chaya's eyes hovered into view, grinning mischievously as she sat upon his waist.In one, fluent motion, the dagger disappeared from her hand, and she stood up, giving him a helping hand."You've got to be more careful about what's coming to ya," Chaya lectured, while she turned on the lights after Ryeth managed to stand."That kick should never have landed, considering it wasn't even that fast."

A simple meal followed, consisting of some more exotic foods than those humans are accustomed to.Where she got the food baffled Ryeth, but since his stomach agreed with it, his mouth made no complaints.Once full, he left the dishes where they were, trooped up to his room, and went to sleep. 

In his sleep, he vividly recalled how it all happened…

Who'd have ever thought that for 14 years, he had been an elf.All suppressed, his potential in strength, agility, sight, kept at bay.That all changed, of course, when things started going bad, his life flipping upside down, and his emotional distress violently threw open the doors, unleashing his true nature.Sort of like X-men, he thought when it first happened, while he was up in a tree in a park.Certainly it was fascinating to him, but something nagged at him constantly.Some link was missing.

_ _

_How Chaya found him in the first place, he still doesn't know, but since then, she was like his savior.She taught him everything he knew now about being an elf, how to control emotions, how to tap into his full abilities, even a bit of simple elfin magic.Of course he was grateful to her, and deeply respected her, for her kindness and her skill.Chaya's skills surpassed his tenfold, but it was expected.She was the teacher, he was the student._

_ _

_But, he often pondered, she couldn't be all that much older than him.She sure didn't look it.So how does she know so much about elves, and magic, and all those other things that are beyond his understanding.If only he could…_

_ _

His entranced thought broke as the morning light poured through the window.He was still staying in the city, so he could slowly acclimatize to the living out in the bushes, as he thought of it.But to a /real/ elf, the other side of his mind quipped, the bushes are home.Chaya stayed there, and he was supposed to meet her at the holt soon.He had to learn how to change the way he viewed everything, but it wasn't too hard, after all, since being an elf was his nature now.His human side was a façade, and was never his stronger side.

The holt was way out of town, but Ryeth managed to get there in half an hour, sprinting through alleys, parks, places where he couldn't be seen easily.Inside a forest, the holt was centered around a magnificent oak tree.Hollowed out, it served as a den and living space for Chaya.The wind blew softly, hissing through the trees providing a faint chill to the early morning.Maybe a foreshadowing of things to come.As a chill rippled through his spine, Ryeth entered the den, as he had been doing each morning for the previous week.

"Today's lesson will be magic," Chaya noted, as she fizzled into reality from thin air.Hearing the word, "magic", triggered an grin from Ryeth.Finally, he'll learn something other than fighting."A simple invisibility spell, and an invisibility rune."With those few words, Chaya started to whiten, and then faze out, until she was invisible, as far as Ryeth could tell. "Now, what I just did was the spell, and mark my words, at the start, it will take you a long time to disappear completely.Keep that in mind.You must concentrate hard on the idea of invisibility, simple as that, and then you'll notice you'll start to fade out, the same way I did.Try it."

And so he concentrated.He concentrated long and hard.He concentrated until his brain hurt, until his eyes felt like they were bulging from the strain.He concentrated until Chaya told him to stop."You're concentrating /too/ hard!"Ryeth's mind looped around itself.Didn't she say to concentrate hard?Sighing with distaste, Chaya told him to relax, and concentrate hard, but at the same time, without conscious thought."Tap into that raw nature, the primal force."

Ryeth tried, oh how he tried, but he couldn't keep his mind focused.Chaya was always so different when she was teaching, compared to when they happened to lounge about, which was not often.She was so… professional when teaching, but so loose, and so 14-year-oldish when simply chatting.But he was supposed to focus now, and with some difficulty, Ryeth pushed out the ideas from his head, clearing it all except for the single thought of not being able to be seen.

His hands lost a bit of their colour, and slowly, the lightness flowed up his arms and into his chest.His clothes, too, were draining of their colour.And in the same way, in waves, he became more and more invisible, until only the faintest trace of colour remained.After about 5 minutes, Ryeth managed to become entirely invisible to the eye, naked or not."Now," a voice said, coming from his right, "you simply have to relax, and clear your mind, and you'll become visible again."At that moment, Chaya winked into sight.

His mind was clear from everything, and Ryeth came into sight as well, though with a bit more difficulty.Still being somewhat human, he found the idea of not thinking somewhat difficult, and it took him around 30 seconds before he popped into view.But feeling accomplished from his feat, a smile popped into view as well on his face, and he waited patiently for the next lesson.

But the rune magic wasn't exactly a lesson, as he found out later.Without a word, Chaya withdrew her dagger, took his right hand, and drew a line from his little finger to the opposite side of the wrist.The blade was unearthly sharp, and though blood would slowly drip out, there was only the faintest ping of pain.Opening his mouth to protest at the sight of blood, Chaya signaled him to be quiet, and simply watch.

With her thumb, she drew a marking on his hand, the blood tracing her finger.When completed, it roughly resembled a water droplet with a dot in the middle.Once satisfied with the rune, she took out her blade again, and carved a triangle around the rune, starting from the top point, and working down and left, then right, then up and left.But she also added an extra side, extending the right side of the triangle a bit more from the top, and then drawing another line perpendicular to the left side.

The cuts sealed up instantaneously, and then his whole body disappeared, like with the spell, only without taking up any time at all.He watched as Chaya traced the rune quickly upon her own hand, with speed he could barely even follow, and she, too, disappeared."Now, the advantage of runes are that they allow stronger magic, because they are channeled through you, and that they work quickly.However, it requires a large amount of training, since there is no way to simply make the spell stop working.It will only wear off.You do control, however, how fast it will wear off by cutting deeper or shallower.A shallow cut will make the spell last shorter, and deeper one, longer."

As if on cue, the two of them came into view from nowhere at the same time, after about 2 minutes, thanks to Chaya's expertise on the magic."Now, take out your blade, and I'll teach you what each marking means."Withdrawing his own dagger, Ryeth gently placed the edge upon his hand.Chaya grasped the handle as well, to guide her student in the magic.

"The first slice indicates the strength of the magic.Two strokes next to each other will allow a stronger spell, but they will also drain you more considerably.The number of strokes can go up to very high numbers, as magic can get stronger and stronger.For spells such as ones that will give you power, these will determine how strong the powers will be.The depth of this stroke isn't all too important, though you naturally don't want it to be too deep, or it will hurt.Since the invisibility spell is basic, it only requires one stroke.And always use your right hand."With this explained, Chaya slowly guided the blade in a shallow slash across the hand.

"The finger is supposed to trace the rune, which determines which spell will be used.It is important that you start drawing your rune from the top right corner of the first stroke, and that you draw them in the right order.Runes may look the same when completed, but the order of the strokes may make the difference between an invisibility charm or a weakening charm."She adjusted his grip on the handle of the dagger, allowing his index finger to be freed, and slowly drew the same rune.

"Now, the final marking is the finishing rune, which you add to all your runes, no matter which one it is.It dictates how long the spell will last.The deeper the slash, the longer it will last, as I said before.But be careful, since the magic is extremely sensitive.The faintest marking will usually last for around a minute, human time."With that, she traced a barely visible finishing rune, the triangle with the extra side, and he disappeared, only to pop in once again."You'll get a feel for it later on."

Ryeth marveled at the magic.His hand had no trace upon it, no scars, not even a tiny scratch.But he was not one to argue, since fortune had already come his way."We'll be doing some… field work tomorrow, so for now, you're free to try out your spells, or chat, or whatever."And with that invitation, Ryeth fell into a simple conversation with Chaya, about nothing interesting in particular.He always enjoyed talking to her, normally, as he thought it, since it was like talking to an old friend.

This night, he ate with Chaya, and decided to sleep in the holt.Having done some magic, he felt like he had accomplished much, and was more an elf than ever before.During the meal, the two conversed some more, and he tried to pull off the invisibility spell once more.It required a bit less time, and he decided that it would be good to work on it, so he could disappear faster.Surprisingly tired, Ryeth trooped off into the den, and fell upon the remarkably comfortable furs, as his eyes fell shut.A good day, he realized, as sleep claimed his spirit, and his eyes closed.A good day, and a good teacher.

**Review?**


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